Urbanization

 

Solutions for fast-growing cities

We shape innovations in planning, finance, governance, and infrastructure to manage a rapidly urbanizing world.
 
Urbanization

For the first time in history, a majority of people now live in cities.

The world population is growing explosively.  For the first time in history, more people now live in urban communities than in rural areas. Cities cannot cope with this massive migration. In nearly all the urban areas that will experience the most dramatic growth, there is not enough housing or food or transportation—let alone jobs, schools or health care—to handle the influx. In addition, the floods, droughts and other perilous conditions that result from climate change multiply the dangers in these overcrowded areas. 

Models for Coping with Unplanned Urban Growth

The Rockefeller Foundation is exploring the best models for addressing the health and survival threats of unplanned urban areas.  We are working with partners and networks to integrate initiatives to:

Keys to U.S. Urban Progress

American cities are undergoing massive demographic shifts. Effectively managing this change is critical to national progress.


READ PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER OP-ED

READ “THE STATE OF METROPOLITAN AMERICA”
 

 
America Stands on the Precipice of a “Decade of Reckoning”

Brookings Institution

A new Brookings Institution report, supported by the Foundation, focuses on the major demographic forces transforming the nation and large metropolitan areas in the 2000s. It previews what we will learn from the 2010 Census, and supplements those results in important ways.

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What All of Us Can Do to Reinvent Our Cities

Judith Rodin, Foundation president, discusses how philanthropies and universities can work with their local communities to leverage social change.

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Networks for Urban Innovation
Featured Grantee

Shack/Slum Dwellers International

Daily savings plans and other grassroots initiatives transform urban crises into opportunities in developing countries.

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Century of the City:
No Time to Lose

An urban future for mankind has dawned. By 2050 projections are that 70% of the world will live in cities. How can we prepare for this urban boom?

A Rockefeller Foundation book explores the dangers and the opportunities.

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